Visual Studio Code

For the integrated development environment, see Microsoft Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. It includes support for debugging, embedded Git control, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring. It is also customizable, so users can change the editor's theme, keyboard shortcuts, and preferences. It is free and open-source,[8][9] although the official download is under a proprietary license.[7]

Visual Studio Code is based on Electron, a framework which is used to deploy Node.js applications for the desktop running on the Blink layout engine. Although it uses the Electron framework,[10] the software does not use Atom and instead employs the same editor component (codenamed "Monaco") used in Azure DevOps (formerly called Visual Studio Online and Visual Studio Team Services).[11]

In the Stack Overflow 2018 Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked the most popular developer environment tool, with 34.9% of 75,398 respondents claiming to use it.[12]

History

Visual Studio Code was announced on April 29, 2015 by Microsoft at the 2015 Build conference. A Preview build was released shortly thereafter.[13]

On November 18, 2015, Visual Studio Code was released under the MIT License and its source code posted to GitHub. Extension support was also announced.[8]

On April 14, 2016, Visual Studio Code graduated the public preview stage and was released to web.[14]

Features

An orange version of the Visual Studio Code logo
Visual Studio Code 1.17 logo

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor. It supports a number of programming languages and a set of features that may or may not be available for a given language. Many of Visual Studio Code features are not exposed through menus or the user interface. Rather, they are accessed via the command palette or via a .json file (e.g., user preferences).[15] The command palette is a command-line interface. However, it disappears if the user clicks anywhere outside it or presses a key combination on the keyboard to interact with something outside it. When this happens, the command in progress is cancelled.

In the role of a source code editor, Visual Studio Code allows changing the code page in which the active document is saved, the character that identifies line break (a choice between LF and CRLF), and the programming language of the active document.

Visual Studio Code can be extended via plug-ins,[16] available through a central repository. This includes additions to the editor[17] and language support.[15] A notable feature is the ability to create extensions that analyze code, such as linters and tools for static analysis, using the Language Server Protocol.[18]

Reception

In the 2016 Developers Survey of Stack Overflow, Visual Studio Code ranked #13 among the top popular development tools, with only 7.2% of the 46,613 respondents using it.[19] However, in the 2018 Developers Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked #1, with 34.9% of the 75,398 respondents using it.[12]

Visual Studio Code is widely reviewed to be fast and lightweight, and is considered to be flexible across various domains such as Java, JavaScript, Go, Node.js and even C++.[20][21][22] [23]

Data collection

Visual Studio Code collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft, although this telemetry reporting can be disabled.[24] The data is shared among Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries and with law enforcement, per the privacy statement.[25] Because of the open-source nature of the app, it is known exactly what is collected, provided you build the app from source; upstream's binary is shipped under a proprietary licence.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ "November 2018 Recovery 2".
  2. ^ https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/releases
  3. ^ "Download VS Code Insiders". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  4. ^ "Visual Studio Code Display Language (Locale)". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  5. ^ "LICENSE.txt". github.com/Microsoft/vscode. Microsoft. 17 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Download Visual Studio Code". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  7. ^ a b "Microsoft Software License Terms". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  8. ^ a b "Visual Studio now supports debugging Linux apps; Code editor now open source". Ars Technica. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  9. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (April 29, 2015). "Microsoft Launches Visual Studio Code, A Free Cross-Platform Code Editor For OS X, Linux And Windows". TechCrunch.
  10. ^ "Microsoft's new Code editor is built on Google's Chromium". Ars Technica. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  11. ^ "Monaco Editor". microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor.
  12. ^ a b "Developer Survey Results 2018". StackOverflow Insights. Stack Exchange. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  13. ^ Montgomery, John (April 29, 2015). "BUILD 2015 News: Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio 2015 RC, Team Foundation Server 2015 RC, Visual Studio 2013 Update 5".
  14. ^ "Visual Studio Code editor hits version 1, has half a million users". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. 15 April 2016.
  15. ^ a b "Language Support in Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Code. October 10, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  16. ^ "Extending Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Code. October 10, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  17. ^ "Managing Extensions in Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Code. October 10, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  18. ^ "Creating Language Servers for Visual Studio Code". Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  19. ^ "Developer Survey Results 2016". Stack Overflow Insights. Stack Exchange. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  20. ^ Kanjilal, Joydip (2015-05-06). "Visual Studio Code: A fast, lightweight, cross-platform code editor". InfoWorld.
  21. ^ Bisson, Simon (2018-09-11). "It's gotten a little easier to develop PWAs in Windows". InfoWorld.
  22. ^ Krill, Paul (2018-02-24). "What's new in Microsoft Visual Studio Code". ChannelWorld.
  23. ^ Wanyoike, Michael (2018-06-06). "Debugging JavaScript Projects with VS Code & Chrome Debugger". SitePoint.
  24. ^ "Visual Studio Code FAQ". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2016. VS Code collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more. If you don’t wish to send usage data to Microsoft, you can set the telemetry.enableTelemetry setting to false.
  25. ^ "Microsoft Enterprise and Developer Privacy Statement". privacy.microsoft.com. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  26. ^ https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/tree/master/src/vs/platform/telemetry

External links